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Tuesday, 15 January 2013

Top Porsche team to win £5000

The most successful team in the
2013 Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge GB will win £5000 at the end of the season in
what is thought to be the most lucrative award of its kind at this level of
British motor racing.

The new GT3 Cup Challenge Team Championship,
launched today (Thursday 10 January) at Autosport International, will be open to
two cars from each team with points scored on the same basis as the drivers’
championship. However, to make the Team Championship as flexible as possible,
teams will be able to change their nominated scoring cars for each
event.

Seven days prior to a race weekend, each team must nominate
which cars will score points for the team for that weekend. The nominated cars
can then be changed again for the following race weekend if
required.

Leading team boss Stuart Parker from Team Parker Racing
said that the award is another boost for the championship. “This is great news
for the GT3 Cup Challenge,” said Parker. “Anything that encourages teams to
contest the championship is excellent news and I’m sure there will be some tough
competition for the prize.”

Meanwhile, the scoring system for the
drivers’ championship has been amended to better suit drivers’ family and
business commitments. In calculating end of season totals, drivers will count
the scores from their best five weekends out of the scheduled six
double-headers. This will be a boost for drivers who need to miss a race weekend
due to clashing commitments and also means that drivers can have a bad weekend
without necessarily damaging their title bid.

GT3 Cup Challenge drivers in action

Twelve races in six weekends covering
Britain’s best-loved tracks make up the superb calendar for the 2013 Porsche GT3
Cup Challenge GB.

Headlining the season will be the deciding two
races on the BTCC support bill at Silverstone in September, while visits to
Donington Park, Brands Hatch, Croft, Snetterton and Rockingham make up the
balance of the season. Importantly, general test sessions are available before
the race weekend at each track to allow less experienced drivers to learn the
circuits.

The season starts at Donington Park in mid-April, just a
week before the Carrera Cup GB races at the East Midlands track on the BTCC
schedule. Double-headers at Snetterton (May), Croft (July) and Rockingham
(August) follow through the spring and summer before an all-action finish to the
season in September with dates at Brands Hatch and then at Silverstone for the
BTCC weekend.

At four of the tracks (Snetterton, Croft, Rockingham
and Brands Hatch) general testing is available on the Friday of the race
weekend, At Donington, the general test will be on the Thursday before the races
and at Silverstone testing will be on the Wednesday prior to the
event.

“We’ve listened to the feedback from our competitors and
believe we have an excellent calendar,” said championship co-ordinator Darioush
Gheissari. “I’m particularly pleased that testing is available before each of
the race weekends.”